The journey to independence 

Laura is just finishing her PhD in cancer sciences at Birmingham University and is due to hand in her 60,000 word thesis in the Autumn. She is driving and living an independent life without any carers, despite having PoTs, multiple sclerosis and other health conditions. She has achieved all this, thanks in no small part to her 2 year old black Labrador, Mae, who she describes as ’a beautiful cheeky little girl who has the biggest wiggle when she walks’.

Back in 2019 Laura spent 6 months in hospital due to the severity of PoTs episodes.  She would pass out without warning, often injuring herself.  As conventional medicine did not control her condition, she began to research other options and discovered Medical Detection Dogs.
As there was a long wait for an MD dog, Laura decided to buy her own pup and began training herself with the help of MDD. ‘At one point’, says Laura ‘Mae got a little stuck with her alerts but with further input from MDD, she improved within a week. It goes to show the importance of having input from a specialist charity that has multiple people on hand with different ideas’.

Her life has changed from multiple emergency trips to hospital, including an air ambulance attendance, to one in which she has not been to hospital for a PoTs related episode for over 14 months. ‘I feel so confident knowing Mae is with me’, says Laura.’ Life has changed so much, I can’t begin to even put it into words. I reduced my carers from live -in, to pop -in and now have no carers at all. My family have all relaxed because they know Mae keeps me safe. My mum doesn’t have to call constantly checking to see if all is ok and my mental health has drastically improved too. Everyone in my neurology team is in awe of Mae’.

Laura has gone from being scared to go out alone, to being able travel or go shopping independently because of her confidence in Mae and her alerts. She knows Mae will give warning of an oncoming PoTs episode and can prepare for it. She is even attending a scientific conference later this year to present her research findings. She describes this as ‘ nerve wracking but also exciting’. And Mae of course will be there to support Laura.